Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Maclays beers during WW II (part five)

Finally we're there. At the end of my series on Maclays beers in WW II. We've laughed, we've cried, we've put our heads down the toilet bowl hoping it would all go away.

In a radical new departure, I'm going to look at the recipes. Or at least the grists. And do that compary thing with London. Good reasons for even more tables. Not that I need good reasons. Or any reasons. I'm just going to come out and say it: I love tables. There. I've finally outed myself.

Where was I? Wandering off into incomprehensibility again. It's my favourite spot to take a stroll. I suppose I should get back to the topic, Maclay's wartime grists.

Maclay PA 6d vs Barclay Perkins IPA (1943)

Date

Brewer

Beer

pale
malt

amber malt

SA
malt

PA
malt

no.
1 sugar

caramel

flaked
barley

flaked
oats

malted
oats

average

Maclay

PA 6d

76.34%

8.14%

0.25%

6.11%

9.16%

19th Jan 1943

Barclay Perkins

IPA

5.25%

41.25%

42.00%

7.00%

4.50%

difference

-76.34%

5.25%

41.25%

42.00%

-1.14%

-0.25%

4.50%

-9.16%

Sources:

Maclay brewing record, document number M/6/1/1/13 held at the
Scottish Brewing Archive.

Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London
Metropolitan Archives document numbers ACC/2305/01/625 and ACC/2305/01/626.

I'll begin by comparing Maclays PA 6d with Barclay Perkins IPA. No. 1 invert sugar aside, the grists are totally different. Even the base malt is different, with Barclay Perkins using a combination of PA malt and SA malt, while Maclay used plain old pale malt.

Amber malt is a pretty odd ingredient in a Pale Ale. I can only assume Barclay Perkins had a lot of it lying about. Pre-war it only made an appearance in their Stouts and Mild Ales. SA malt is equally unusual in a Pale Ale, usually being found in Strong Ale, Mild Ale and Stout. I think we can safely blame the huge divergence in grists on Barclay Perkins, who were using very different malts compared with peacetime.

The next comparisons should be more useful: Maclays PA 6d with Whitbread IPA. First, the 1943 iterations:

Maclay PA 6d vs Whitbread IPA (1943)

Date

Year

Beer

Style

pale
malt

crystal
malt

no.
1 sugar

caramel

flaked
oats

malted
oats

average

1943

Maclay

PA 6d

76.66%

8.60%

0.32%

5.32%

9.11%

average

1943

Whitbread

IPA

78.08%

6.16%

5.48%

10.27%

difference

1.42%

6.16%

-3.12%

-0.32%

4.96%

-9.11%

Sources:

Maclay brewing record, document number M/6/1/1/13 held at the
Scottish Brewing Archive.

Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan
Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/110 and LMA/4453/D/01/111.

In both cases pale malt and No. 1 invert sugar make up around 85% of the grist. Whitbread used rather more flaked oats, but Maclay offset this by using malted oats as well. Whitbread continued to include some crystal malt, as they had before the war. I should also mention that, while it doesn't show up in the list of ingredients, there was caramel in Whitbread's beer. They used caramel for colour adjustments to get their beers to the standard colour.

The differences in the grists remained generally the same in 1944. Crystal malt in the Whitbread, malted oats in the Maclay. Both brewers had exchanged flaked oats for flaked barley. The presence of flaked oats in 1943 and flaked barley in 1944 is simple to explain. The government forced brewers to use these ingredients.

Maclay PA 6d vs Whitbread IPA (1944)

Date

Year

Brewer

Beer

pale
malt

crystal
malt

no.
1 sugar

caramel

flaked
barley

malted
oats

average

1944

Maclay

PA 6d

78.19%

8.60%

0.32%

5.32%

7.58%

average

1944

Whitbread

IPA

78.00%

9.00%

8.00%

5.00%

difference

-0.19%

9.00%

-0.60%

-0.32%

-0.32%

-7.58%

Sources:

Maclay brewing record, document number M/6/1/1/13 held at the
Scottish Brewing Archive.

Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan
Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/110 and LMA/4453/D/01/111.

The story is much the same when we compare Maclay Export with Whitbread PA. The Whitbread beer contains crystal malt and the Maclay one malted oats. No surprise about the latter.

Maclay Export vs Whitbread PA (1943)

Date

Year

Brewer

Beer

pale
malt

crystal
malt

no.
1 sugar

caramel

flaked
oats

malted
oats

average

1943

Maclay

Export

76.34%

8.14%

0.25%

6.11%

9.16%

average

1943

Whitbread

PA

73.34%

4.56%

8.84%

13.26%

difference

-2.99%

4.56%

0.70%

-0.25%

7.15%

-9.16%

Sources:

Maclay brewing record, document number M/6/1/1/13 held at the
Scottish Brewing Archive.

Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan
Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/110 and LMA/4453/D/01/111.

Maclay Export vs Whitbread PA (1944)

Date

Year

Brewer

Beer

pale
malt

crystal
malt

no.
1 sugar

caramel

flaked
barley

malted
oats

average

1944

Maclay

Export

79.39%

8.14%

0.25%

6.11%

6.11%

average

1944

Whitbread

PA

72.05%

7.16%

8.99%

11.80%

difference

-7.34%

7.16%

0.85%

-0.25%

5.69%

-6.11%

Sources:

Maclay brewing record, document number M/6/1/1/13 held at the
Scottish Brewing Archive.

Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan
Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/110 and LMA/4453/D/01/111.

I think I might have forgotten to mention something. By this stage of the war, Maclay were only really brewing one beer, in two different strengths. PA 6d and Export were almost always parti-gyled and, even when they weren't, the recipe remained the same.

Wait until you see what happened after the war. Maclays recipes have something very special about them. More about that later.